Light rain dampens Epping grass fires

AT LEAST one home was destroyed and frightened residents and workers fled as a fast-moving fire came close to Melbourne’s outer northern suburbs.

The grassfire became an out of control blaze, burning more than 2000 hectares as it headed south from Donnybrook towards urban Epping and Campbellfield.

More than 600 firefighters in 120 trucks came from across Victoria to battle the flames on a hot and gusty day. They were supported by 11 waterbombing aircraft.

A worker ponders what might be as fire approaches Epping. Photo: Jason South

ABC Radio reported the Northern Hospital had evacuated a childcare centre on its grounds and shoppers at Epping Plaza were asked to stay indoors.

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Three firefighters were assessed for smoke inhalation.

By midnight on Monday, exhausted CFA, MFB and DSE firefighters had contained the fire, but were expected to spend the night tamping out embers and assessing damage. The front was halted near the corner of Hume Freeway and Cooper Street, having progressed along both sides of the freeway. It had been headed for Thomastown.

Epping grassfire hits city fringe

A relieved Country Fire Authority deputy chief officer Steve Warrington said: ‘‘It was a very dangerous, fast moving fire that had potential to cause significant damage, had it not been for the co ordinated efforts of the Victorian fire agencies.

"We know we saved a number of houses but we know there’s one lost, in the north-eastern sector."

Property developer Robert Scanlon said he had been told by police that three factories in the Northpoint Enterprise Park in Cooper Street, Epping, were feared destroyed. Mr Scanlon had undertaken the major project with another developer, which he said represented years of work.

Waterbombing of the grassfire at Wollert. Photo: Jason South

Residents in Epping and Campbellfield and surrounding suburbs spent the afternoon and evening on high alert.

The CFA issued an emergency warning meaning lives were at risk. They urged residents to activate their fire plans, to leave if it was safe and to monitor radio bulletins.

Igniting about 1pm on Monday near Donnybrook Road, Donnybrook, the fire spread through Wollert towards homes and factories in Epping and Campbellfield.

By 7.30pm firefighters feared the flames would enter suburbia. Part of Cooper Street, Epping, was closed and the Hume Freeway was shut from Sydney Road to the Metropolitan Ring Road.

The City of Whittlesea opened its emergency centre that was previously used for Black Saturday and other residents headed for Epping Plaza shopping centre.

Residents of Aurora Estate, Wollert, endured a frightening afternoon during which they could see flames from the windows of their houses and dense smoke rising above the vacant paddocks and houses.

The grassfire swept past the properties on the edge of the estate, in vacant land on its western edge. On Monday afternoon and evening as many as seven helicopters could be seen flying above the fire, with some of them bombing the blaze.

Father of three Raheel Muhammad, of Edenvale Boulevard, said he packed his car with documents and a change of clothes for his children, in preparation to leave if necessary.

"We could see the flames right there, we could see the flames from our windows," he said.

"The flames were really high up,"he said. The fire was just a few hundred metres from his house.

"It was a frightening afternoon," he said.

Local Steve watched the fire from a small hill on the edge of the estate in the late afternoon and early evening. He had rushed home from work to check on his family and house in Aurora Estate.

Steve said that he sent his three children and his girlfriend to a friend’s place, a safe distance away from the blaze on the edge of suburbia.

"It was huge, it was huge. Smoke everywhere, flames everywhere," he said.

ABOVE: Chris Chambers prepared this time lapse video of the smoke plume as seen from the 11th floor of the Bureau of Meteorology yesterday.

Smoke was reported across Melbourne including the CBD. Traffic in the Epping area ground to a standstill as cars containing people evacuating merged with commuters, and, later, sightseers.

The fast-moving grass fire had headed south into metropolitan Melbourne, fanned by gusty northerly winds.

By 6pm it was heading along Cooper Street, Epping, and threatening homes near Rex Road, Campbellfield, and Edgars Road, Epping.

Victoria’s Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley said roads were jammed with cars. "Roads are gridlocked out in that area," Mr Lapsley told ABC radio. "People are either trying to get out or get home."

Elsewhere, a fire, in the Victoria Valley north of Dunkeld near the Grampians, had burnt 4230 hectares and was on Monday night still out of control. It was feared that a southerly wind change could put nine local properties at risk.

"This complex [fire] includes the fires formerly known as Clutterbucks Road, Jensens Road and Burnt Hut Track," the CFA said.

It had reached the Victoria Valley Road and was spotting up to a kilometre over the road. Firefighters from the CFA, DSE and Parks Victoria were working through the night to protect properties in the area. Residents were put on a "watch and act" warning.

Melbourne on Monday had its sixth consecutive day of 31 degrees or higher temperatures, the longest stretch in 14 years.

While a cool change was on its way, it wasn’t expected to reach the city until sunrise on Tuesday. Temperatures were unlikely to drop below 22 degrees, making for another sweltering night.

The cool change is likely to bring showers and possibly thunderstorms. The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting minimums to remain above 18 degrees until at least Sunday, continuing the trend of above-average temperatures overnight.

Minimum temperatures have been above average every day since February 2 and are averaging 2 degrees above the norm so far for the month, Melissa MacKellar, a meteorologist with Weatherzone. "It’s been more humid than normal so it’s probably felt particularly uncomfortable."

With PETER HANNAM and AAP

30 comments

In the comparative safety of Red Gum-graced Macleod some 10 kilometres south of largely deforested but grassy Epping, I smelled the burning, saw the smoke and the orange tinge to the light and discovered that some 0.5 centimetre ash fragments settled on an abstract acrylic painting I was drying in the sun - when I brushed them away they smudged black.

The area burned annually by forest fires in the Western US has increased about 5-fold since the 1960s and this was attributed to global warming in a key study by Westerling et al entitled "Warming and Earlier Spring Increase Western U.S. Forest Wildfire Activity" and published in 2006 in the prestigious scientific journal Science (for a summary of global warming effects by 2008 Google "The science of climatic disruption" by President Obama's chief scientific adviser Professor John Holdren).

For a sustainably safe planet we must urgently reduce atmospheric CO2 (carbon dioxide) from the present nearly 400 ppm (parts per million) to about 300 ppm, the pre-industrial level for the last 800,000 years (Google "300.org" and "300 ppm CO2"). Anaerobic pyrolysis at circa 400-700C of existing straw and woody waste to biochar (charcoal) is a major means of achieving this (Google "Forest biomass-derived biochar can profitably reduce global warming and bushfire risk").

Commenter

Dr Gideon Polya

Location

Macleod

Date and time

February 19, 2013, 4:40AM

nobody is listening Doc. It's over. The con is over.

Commenter

WotTha?????

Date and time

February 19, 2013, 5:45AM

Feel free to paint a solution.

Commenter

Problems Are Easy

Date and time

February 19, 2013, 5:56AM

Oh no, you mentioned Global Warming in your post, prepare to be bombarded with comments from the internet "experts" and blog readers who know better than you.

Commenter

Environmental Scientist

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

February 19, 2013, 5:57AM

Nobody thinks it's a con WotTha, except the people who never wanted to listen in the first place.

Commenter

Rob

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

February 19, 2013, 6:03AM

Sorry to hear about your painting. It is global warming that is a factor. Another factor is over population! Melbourne has had a million extra people in 10 years - now living in areas that are bushfire prone.

Commenter

w ch

Date and time

February 19, 2013, 6:28AM

People will never listen when you try and "educate" with fear campaigns and propaganda. Taking a single flood or bushfire event in a country prone to floods and bushfires with a warning it will get worse if we don't act is clearly not working. Try educating the public with the hard facts for a change, maybe even propose a solution!

Let's not worry about what experts in the field have to say and listen to moronic politicians who care about one thing - being elected. Imagine, people listening to Abbott on climate change...did he put it in writing...you know..."don't believe me unless it's in writing"

Welcome to idiot Australia 2013

Commenter

Blur

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

February 19, 2013, 6:35AM

Some rejoinders.

1. The Age reported the reason the Epping fire was not a disaster: "More than 600 firefighters in 120 trucks came from across Victoria to battle the flames on a hot and gusty day. They were supported by 11 waterbombing aircraft".

2. Professor Johannes Lehmann of Cornell University has calculated that it is realistically possible to fix 9.5bn tonnes of carbon per year using biochar.from agricultural waste (straw) and forestry waste (wood), this being commensurate with annual industrial carbon pollution, noting that such conversion would also reduce grassland and forest fire fuel load (Google "Forest biomass-derived Biochar can profitably reduce global warming and bushfire risk"). .

3. A recent revision by the World Bank coupled with US Energy Information Administration estimates of continuing global greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution growth means that global GHG pollution will in five (5) years' time exceed the 2010-2050 global terminal GHG pollution budget of 600 bn tonnes CO2-e that must not be exceeded for a 70% chance of avoiding a disastrous 2C temperature rise (Google "Doha climate change inaction")

4. A 2010 Open Letter about climate change action by 255 members of the prestigious US National Academy of Sciences (including 11 Nobel Laureates) stated "Delay is not an option" (Google "Are we doomed?").

Commenter

Dr Gideon Polya

Location

Macleod

Date and time

February 19, 2013, 7:44AM

Wait, you're worried about the envionment, but you're using paint? Oh dear...